The Silver Box

The Silver Box is a three-act comedy, the first play by the English writer John Galsworthy.

Galsworthy said that his aim was "to create such an illusion of actual life passing on the stage as to compel the spectator to pass through an experience of his own, to think and talk and move with the people he sees thinking and talking and moving in front of him.

Critics praised Ethel Barrymore's performance, but audiences preferred to see her in more glamorous parts.

[3][4] Principal members of the original cast on 25 September 1906 at the Royal Court Theatre:[2] Act I, Scene I The three scenes of the first Act take place in the London dining room of John Barthwick, a Liberal member of parliament.

Jack Barthwick, son of the family, comes home at night drunk, carrying a lady's reticule (handbag).

Jones, whose wife is the charwoman for the Barthwicks, has helped him to unlock the door, and is given a drink by Jack.

While Mrs. Jones is cleaning the room, she talks to Wheeler, the housemaid, and to Marlow, the butler, about her husband: he is out of work, and is violent when he is drunk.

Act I, Scene III John Barthwick and his wife, having breakfast, talk about politics: she is alarmed on reading in the newspaper that a Labour candidate has won a by-election, but he says that all parties should be represented.

She is the young lady whom Jack met last evening; she is anxious to have her purse back, to pay the rent.

Marlow informs Barthwick that the cigarette box is missing; there is a suspicion that Mrs. Jones stole it.

Jones, who has pleaded guilty to stealing the box and assaulting the police, is told that being drunk is no excuse, and is given one month in prison.

The play has been adapted for television: In 1939 it was a BBC play: it featured Gibb McLaughlin as John Barthwick, Basil Langton as Jack Barthwick, Leon M. Lion as Jones and Louise Hampton as Mrs.